


Monster Syndicate for Rights

by laneisanerd



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Life after the barrier is broken, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-08 21:56:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5514710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laneisanerd/pseuds/laneisanerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sevan and his three friends live in Ebott City, a tightly packed bustling town at the base of Mount Ebott, and it has been ten years since the barrier was brought down. Monster's were granted freedom... Or so they thought. The four are learning that not everything aboveground is as good as they anticipated it to be.<br/>Rated M for violence, swears, drug use, illegal activities, and sex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Aboveground or Bust

**Author's Note:**

> *A/N: Hi there! 
> 
> If you don't like OC heavy stories; this might not be the story for you! I would encourage you to check it out though, hopefully you like what I am creating, and I always welcome constructive criticism or grammatical error corrections! I have character sheets for each of these characters if you want to read up on that first (its not mandatory to understand the story).
> 
> Enjoy the story!  
> ~Lane

**Chapter One-**

 

The winters here in Ebott City seemed to be getting colder every year; and as I strode down the still crowded streets I couldn’t stop to notice a majority of the monsters weren’t used to it. The only place we really had that mimicked this kind of freeze was in Snowdin back in the Underground. Ten years ago the barrier had been broken, by a child no less, and Monsters poured out of the Underground with hope. I could faintly remember feeling it myself even.

A petite mouse-like creature wrapped in a scarf so big, it almost seemed to engulf his figure, strode in front of me on the sidewalk. I could tell the poor mouse was struggling with every step and his lack of shoes gave away the fact that he was most likely homeless. I kept up my pace behind him as I thought of Veralee as a child, with nothing to her name and she looked so starved, and my heart went out to the tiny creature. A few humans could be seen actively avoiding it as it ambled forward with a cup out; inaudibly asking for donations in the cold.

My pace picked up and I pulled out my black leather wallet as I matched the mouse’s pace. His big brown eyes seemed to bore holes in my face as I searched for the cash, the kid couldn’t be older than a teenager on the streets, and the boy stopped walking completely when I handed him the money as people pooled passed us.

“M-M-M-ister…” His tone was wavering and confirmed from the amount of treble in his pre-pubescent voice he was in fact just a child. I forced myself to smile even when I felt like my face was freezing, “T-That’s al-ot of money… Are y-you sure? I j-just need e-enough to st-ay somewhere f-for the night.”

“I’m positive,” I gently moved to close his minuscule digits over the single one hundred dollar bill in his hands. The fact that the kid had tried to convince me otherwise on giving him that amount almost broke my heart; and I had to force myself to not tear up at the sight, “Keep yourself safe for me, okay?”

The boy broke into a grin, throwing his frail frame against mine in a hug, and after thanking me the mouse ran off into the crowded walk-ways to find somewhere warmer. It seemed like every day I was noticing more and more homeless monsters struggling in this city. I scoffed as I climbed the staircase to my home; opening the door to reveal the dimly lit living room shaded in the light of the television playing an advertisement. The door beeped to signal someone had entered as I closed it, as if the sound of the door wasn’t signal enough, and I saw a small orange blur flip to look over the back of the couch.

“YOU’RE HOME SEVAN!” A tiny monster ran to greet me and I couldn’t stop myself from picking her up off the floor; wrapping her in a warm hug against my fluffy fur as she giggled in delight, “How’d your job go?”

“Pretty uneventful really. The place ran alright without me today, but you know how Marco is, he has to make sure to keep his word on things. What about your big sell today?”

“I escorted Veralee through the transaction. It was successful.” A deep voice sounded from the hallway as I glanced over to see Durza striding into the kitchen. His jet black hair was wet around his shoulders, without a shirt on this extra set of razor like arms hung loosely, and his insect like wings clung to his back as he focused on his food. I glanced from him back to the monster in my arms with a smiling expression; and strode over to Durza quickly to pull him into a bear hug with her.

“Urza, buddy, I missed you so much.” There were several curses in between insisting I didn’t have to squeeze him so hard; but the amount of high pitched laughter coming from the crook of my arm was drowning it out, “I’m glad you did today. She seemed pretty cautious about this one. Anything to note of for future sells?”

When I sat the taller monster down back onto the tiled flooring I could see his eyes shift over to glance at me. I had always been curious about his eyesight, never curious enough to ask though, but it still fascinated me how his eyes looked. They were a foggy green color but if you looked close enough; it seemed as if he had a net underneath the cornea of the eye as his small round pupil darted around.

Durza was an anthropomorphic monster like all of my housemates (and myself). He was a cross between a panther and a praying mantis. The fur that covered his body was pitch black like his feline counterpart, on one set of his arms and his feet he had apposable paws with rough pads from years of dirty work, and his snout was slim as well. The extra set of bladed arms with ridges that he kept deathly sharp suggested more towards his praying mantis genes; though Durza kept those tucked away in a jacket while he was in others company. The only other parts of him that were insect-esque were his eyes and his thin vein like wings that folded neatly onto his back. The wings had an odd red eye pattern on them (something I had only seen once) and because of how small they were; Durza wasn’t capable of actual flight but he could glide a fair distance if needed to.

The otter creature Veralee struggled in the crook of my arm while I was lost in my thought and I sat her onto the floor so she could wander off.

“I would speculate if she had not let me introduce myself as her guard; they most likely would have tried something. What, we will never know, because their aggressive behavior halted rather swiftly.”

“So that one won’t be a repeat customer. Got it,” I shambled off to the bathroom with a wave, “Going to get ready for bed. Don’t stay up too late Leelee. We got places to be tomorrow.”

“Yup.” I could hear through the door once it closed Vera’s feet padding down the hallway to her room which caused me to snicker some. The room still had a blanket of warm fog from Durza’s shower, the mirror was dripping with precipitation, and I reached for the washcloth we kept on the sink to wipe some of it away.

My shaggy fur practically clung to my stocky frame from the sauna in this room; and my normally perky Mohawk was sagging into my sky blue eyes as I brushed it away carefully. I was a panda bear and snow leopard anthro-monster; but I showed more panda than I did leopard. The only genes I had gotten from the snow leopard had been its black circle markings, how thick and shaggy my hair was, and my tail (it looked like it couldn’t make its mind up between the two and instead chose a short bobbed look). My arms pulled at my hoodie and I accidently took my shirt with it; showing my bare chest with a long deep scar reaching from my left shoulder to the beginning of my right hip. It had healed up fine but no fur would grow over it and it served as a constant reminder that I had it.

I forced myself to change thoughts as I turned my head to gaze into the mirror and watched my rounded small ears twitch. The three hoops on my right ear jangled when they moved and I focused on getting into the shower to bathe.

After the water had drained, a towel was wrapped around my waist, and I trudged out of the bathroom to my room. I had just gotten a pair of my boxers on when the door burst open; Veralee hobbling over to my bed to stay for a while.

“Ever heard of knocking first, squirt?”

“And to think. I had begun to assume we were well past that point in our relationship!” Her miniscule maw opened to release a series of adorable giggles and I ruffled her short coarse hair with my paw affectionately.

“Eh, you’re right, I did change your dirty diapers after all,” My comment earned me a slap from her thick tail in annoyance which caused me to burst into my own fits of laughter. Once the laughter died down, I felt her petite frame curl into the warmth of my side, as I sat and thought about the day, “You know anything about your current buyer?”

“He sounded as lazy as you,” I heard her stifle a yawn before she continued, “He’s buying a pretty sizable rock from me too. Nothing too fancy, but from the band and the fact that it’s a traditional diamond, I’m assuming he’s proposing to someone so maybe he won’t be a scumbag like today’s buyer.”

I hummed interestingly at the information and mulled over it, apparently for too long, because once I had opened my mouth to ask her more she had fallen straight to sleep. The first time I had met this small monster; she had been alone in a patch of neon blue echoflowers. Her fur was a bright orange color, making her a prime target since she was not blending in with the environment at all, and although I was young at the time I knew I couldn’t let her starve away in a field of flowers.

Veralee and I were more like siblings since I had raised her. She looked like an otter with tiger markings and feet paws; with two cute fangs hanging out from her mouth. It had not been easy to care for both of us, the days were never long enough for me to get food for both of us, and so because of that I had spent many nights hungry while she ate. Veralee and I both shared two halves of a raw blue topaz that I had split of mine; the rocks were put onto a necklace that neither of us could be seen without.

Taking a finger to rake some of the hair she kept in a short bob haircut out of her eyes; I turned over to close my eyes and drift off into sleep.

 


	2. Promises Are Best Kept

**Chapter Two-**

Someone was bouncing around on the bed and even in a sleepy haze I knew exactly who the culprit was. I let out an annoyed growl, flopping the pillow over my head, and admitted defeat before my covers started flying off of me. I lifted the pillow and opened my eyes with a full view of an excited Veralee; practically vibrating with energy.

“I will never understand how you can be such a morning person.” I drew out gruffly as I scratched a hand through my messy hair between my ears. The grin that was steadily growing on her face peaked, her feet thumping into the living room, and I grumbled out as I lifted off the bed. I knew the drill by now: It was time to get up and go.

Durza was fixing a pot of coffee thankfully and I grabbed a cup to horde back to my room while I got dressed. Today I needed to make sure I could move freely, deciding against a shirt all-together, and instead just throwing on a clean black loose hoodie. My nightstand had my brass knuckles on it that I wore constantly; I had bought them from Veralee’s first batch of wares she was selling. They had become a staple in my wardrobe as I slipped it onto my right hand and took a few practice throws to test myself.

“Durza’s got a contract today so he’s not coming with!” I could hear Veralee screeching out from the front of the house and shortly after the sound of the front door dinging to sound out Durza’s exit. I had just got my shoes on when she poked her head in the door, “You ready yet? I don’t think this buyer will mind if you tote your coffee.”

“Yeah yeah yeah. Your enthusiasm is contagious kid.” Once I had grabbed the extra set of keys to the front door; I picked up Veralee and my coffee both to bring them out of the house. She wasn’t heavy at all or very tall at only four feet so I placed her behind my head on my back some while I nursed my caffeine. “Alright let’s get down to business Leelee.”

“We are meeting at that monster bar on 12th,” She was tapping her feet against my chest as we pushed through the morning crowd of people bustling to their destinations, “The only other information I got from him was he would be wearing a blue jacket and gym shorts.”

“In the middle of the coldest winter? That’s Grillby’s Two; isn’t it?”

“I guess he doesn’t mind the cold. Yeah that old bar you used to go to with Doggo and Marco.”

Veralee had begun to squirm too much so I let her down and strode beside her to our destination. I listened while she listed off the rest of the sells for the week currently, noting the only one she seemed hesitant about being later on, and I mentally made a note to make sure I wasn’t working then. We had just turned onto the street as I noticed a group of people around the entrance to the bar. The first thing I could see once I got close enough was Doggo standing in front of a short skeleton monster like he was addressing the crowd of humans gathering around them. I went to call out to my dog monster friend just as one of the humans pushed the skeleton onto the ground angrily.

Without stopping to think, I took off into a run, just as Doggo had stepped into a defensive stance to protect the monster. My eyes fell onto the offending human that had started the confrontation. The man had barely had enough time to register my entrance when my brass knuckles connected with the side of his face; my full weight into the hit and an extra boost from my magic pushed the human well passed the group.

Throwing my hands up into a fighting stance just as all of their eyes fell onto my form; I barely registered Veralee shuffling behind me, “So who else wants a knuckle sandwich?”

“This place is under protection by the MM. If you humans don’t want to feel their wrath; I would leave well enough alone.” Doggo lifted his small dagger’s out of his cargo pants in addition to his threat and I slammed my knuckles into my other hand irritably causing quite a few of the humans in the group to flinch.

The display had been enough to encourage the wanna-be thugs to find someone else to bother, as they picked up their unconscious friend, and walked rather briskly away from the scene they had caused. When the humans had gone out of ear shot I reached to grab Doggo into a firm hug.

“It’s good to see you too, Sevan,” Once I sat the dog back onto his feet he moved to feel around in the air as I watched him help up the shorter skeleton monster. Doggo was as tall as me and well-toned, his fur was shorter than mine and his color scheme was the same as mine, but in a Irish Spotted coat with black on his arms and legs along with his face. What was extremely noticeable for anyone to see though; was his milky white eyes. The monster was blind and relied on sound or movements to find his way around. He wasn’t so disabled he couldn’t work; I had worked many jobs with him in the past and he was more than capable of handling himself.

A faint blush had spread out onto both of our faces from the close proximity as I stopped to take in the other newer monster. The skeleton was the same height as Veralee just about, his posture similar to mine with a slouch to it, and he wore a blue jacket with fur on the hood along with black gym shorts. This was her buyer apparently; and I reached over to hold my hand out for him to shake.

“You must be our customer. The name’s Sevan,” I was met with a curious stare as I pointed back to my otter companion who had perked up once I spoke the words ‘customer’, “And this is Veralee. I’m her bodyguard for the day.”

The skeleton barely had time to shake my hand before Veralee was all over him like a vulture, always the type of person to ensure repeat customers, and she had her award winning smile plastered onto her face that she used often.

“Hi! You’re interested in the ring, correct?”

“Oh! You’re Vera’s Ware’s,” The shorter skeleton took her offered hand kindly and his teeth pulled into a lazy grin, “I’m Sans. Sans the skeleton. Let’s go in and get comfortable before we start talking pricing.”

I waved at Doggo as the three of us entered into the dimly lit bar; the familiar smell of grease and vanilla reached my nose. It would normally relax me, or at the very least make me buy a beer or two, but today wasn’t the day for that until business was concluded. My senses couldn’t be dulled in the slightest. The bartender was a bright orange flame monster named Grillby; and I winked at him once he had noticed us from pouring drinks as we took our seats at a back booth by the wall. One of the waitresses, a green female flame monster I noted as Flo, stepped over to our booth to take our orders. She seemed familiar with Sans and told him she would get his regular to put on his tab; I ordered my usual and got Veralee a fizzy drink as Flo took off to gather our collective wants.

“Okay. 1.31 Carat diamond ring, white gold band, with diamonds encrusted in the band itself.” Vera produced a small black box and opened it to reveal exactly the ring she described twinkling under the dim lights of the bar. He was struggling to hold back his nervous excitement at seeing it and I was sure Veralee could tell too, “Net appraisal for this bad boy is a strong eight thousand five hundred dollars. I would calculate with what I paid for this, along with the market value for it, I can say this is worth…”

The theatrics were always the same. She tells them the appraisal value, hides the market value from them, and after much ‘thought’ will tell them the pricing for it. I know she takes into account market value but mostly she will set the pricing around a thousand dollars less; unless it’s a hard to sell item or it has a low market value.

“How does three thousand eight hundred sound?”

“That’s honestly cheaper than I thought you were going to price it. Would you mind if I look at it before I agree to it?” Veralee nodded her head and quickly passed over the ring just as Flo stepped back over with our orders. The fizzy drink was passed to Vera, my tall order of coffee steaming in its cup, and a single bottle of ketchup was passed to our customer Sans. Veralee and I both shared a curious glance as the skeleton turned the jewelry around in his boney digits while sipping at his order of ketchup. He placed the ring on the middle of the table and fished for something in his shorts; I tensed up automatically but relaxed when he pulled out a wallet. After he counted out the exact change, passing it over to my small counterpart, and stuck out his hand to us both before he spoke, “Deal.”

“Great,” If he wasn’t careful she was going to take his arm off with the amount of force from her joyful handshake, “If you don’t mind me prying some Sans… Who’s the lucky monster?”

A blue hue spread across his face and I chuckled at Vera’s boldness. The sale had been concluded, money and goods exchanged, and I knew she didn’t do refunds so there wasn’t any harm in asking now I suppose. It didn’t stop me from nudging her softly though.

“I… I’ve been dating this woman for years now. We have a human kid we take care of together and she’s mostly grown now; so I figured why not pop the question? It’s been long enough I think.”

“Congrats man.” I thrust out my drink to him in a mock toast and he followed the motion to push our glasses together. Vera happily joined and quipped in her congratulations; all of us taking a long gulp of our respective drinks. “I insist you take the box too. Vera should have plenty of extras and you need something fancy to really sell the class of that rock you bought.”

“Heh, thanks you two, I really _ore_ you guys.” I couldn’t help myself from snorting at the pun and neither could Vera. She put the ring back into the box, pulling out an adorable looking white fancy ribbon, and tied it around it tenderly. I had noticed Doggo saunter in from his post and motioned him over to sit down with us.

“Business over with? Whatcha buy Sans?” Feeling his fur brush against my leg once Doggo had sat down beside me while Veralee was pushing at my shoulder playfully; I could feel a blush rising and was shooting her dirty looks to stop. She knew the way I felt about Doggo, held it over my head whenever he wasn’t around, and did little things like this when he was. Doggo and I had been old drinking buddies for the longest time and we had been working with Marco the longest out of everyone. I know most people assume he isn’t able to do anything; and it just goes to show that anyone assuming that knows nothing. The two of us had been dancing around flirting for years now.

Sans was explaining that it was just a little gift for Toriel – THE Toriel? Like THE old queen Toriel? I bit my tongue instead of asking – and Doggo tail was thumping against my side while he talked. Sans was asking him what Doggo was doing at Grillby’s around this time of the day and I saw him shrug, “Got a job here.”

“Doing? You’re not a sentry anymore yet you still got your trademark daggers I see.” He was digging a bit more than most would; and I was watching Doggo fidget in his seat.

“He works with me. We keep businesses safe for monsters.” I spoke up hastily while Vera quipped in with, “Yeah like personal bouncers!” so Doggo didn’t have to mention the details of what he did. The skeleton was eyeing us both rather curiously. I noticed his eye lights were gone, while Doggo was squirming a lot more than before, and almost whimpering quietly as if in fear of something. I immediately tensed up and prepared my brass knuckles. Sans head shot up along with his pupils as if he could feel my magic (‘Could he? He couldn’t be able to. No one but Durza could. Stop being paranoid.’) And smiled lazily over to us both.

“Wasn’t aware Grillbz needed protection. I guess I can’t say as much for myself, considering how you two saved my bones earlier, so whatever brings in the cash,” He downed the last of his drink and winked over to me, “No need to get defensive.”

‘He could feel my magic… There’s no way…’ I cursed myself for not masking it better and forced myself to keep my lethargic smile fixed onto my face despite my surprise. Vera however, was another story completely, and she had grabbed my hand under the table to express her fear. She knew not many people could feel when I used my magic. I had spent years training myself to conceal it for that very reason; so in a way the skeleton had just told me to back down. In my head I was roaring out angrily but I had gotten used to reeling in my emotions like my magic.

“He looks out for the people he cares about.” I could hear the waver in her voice and the way her hand tightened around my own as her own way of signaling she was ready to go; the fun was over for her. I wanted to reassure her I was fine but I wasn’t wanting to address the situation either. The amount of wiggling in her seat was distracting me, Doggo was staring where he thought I was from what I could see out of my peripheral vision, but I continued to stare at Sans across the seat while I debated what to do.

“S…Sevan?” Doggo’s soft murmurs were barely registered and I actually flinched when his paw found my face, “Oh… You were so quiet sorry.” I instantly knew a blush was creeping up on me and instead of fighting to keep my emotions in check; I sat up and worked my way passed him in the booth to slide to go outside.

‘I’m such an idiot.’ I leaned against the cool brick while I watched the trees sway in the distance. The fact that I had left Vera alone filled me with guilt for a moment. It was so hard for me to stay neutral around Doggo, one of the only reasons why I couldn’t work jobs with him anymore, and I hated myself for feeling that way. For the longest time we had been an unstoppable duo; and despite the way I had been acting the two of us meshed just as good as Vera and I. ‘Just a big fat idiot.’

While I was stewing in my own self-loathing thoughts the door to the bar jangled open and Doggo’s form emerged cautiously. With a grunt, I moved my arm some, and his ears perked up as he swung his head to face where I was.

“V’s getting worried so I promised her I would check and see you didn’t ditch her,” He was running his paw over his black tight sleeveless tank top and when he calmly spit out his question I froze in place,  “Sevan… I want to know… What’s going on between us? Did I do something to upset you?”

“Why would you ever think I’d be upset at you, dude?”

“Well, for starters,” The tall dog leaned back against the wall with me as his brows seemed to furrow in thought and threw up a finger to count, “I can count the time’s I’ve seen you on both paws this year. When I asked Marco about setting up a job with you; I was shocked to find out you had specifically requested not to.”

I winced at how hurt Doggo looked and forced myself to look down. The air seemed to hang awkwardly for a moment, neither of us saying anything, and when I didn’t deny the accusation he continued on.

“Listen,” His hand wrapped around my arm once he had found it in a firm grip and I moved to touch his hand with my own, “I know things are uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable my ass…” I muttered grumpily at that. There wasn’t a strong enough verb for how awkward things had gotten between us both. I still hated myself for what had taken place and it sounded like he wasn’t going to be letting it go anytime soon. We were both stubborn to a fault.

“We need to talk about it. I feel like I’ve given you plenty of time and space to assess the situation.”

“Now is not the time or place for this conversation,” I shrugged out of his grasp and ran my hand through my hair in defeat. There was no getting out of this conversation but I could at least delay it for a few extra moments, “I need to see that Leelee gets home okay and then I’ll be back.” He was giving me a look that screamed ‘No you won’t’ when I had lifted off the wall, “I promise, Doggo, and you know I don’t break my promises. I’ll meet you back here in thirty minutes. That should be long enough for me to get the energetic blur safe so she can set up a few more while we talk.”

“Fine.” I had just stepped in front of the door when I felt his hand grip around mine tightly. The moment I glanced back at him, his face contorted as he nibbled at his bottom lip, and then released my hand slowly as he averted my gaze. It hurt me to see him so worked up; I wanted to explain myself better and make things less awkward between us.

Once I entered back into the bar I could tell the mood had shifted dramatically from when I had left them which I was silently thankful for. Veralee seemed to be enjoying herself quite a bit, actively retelling a tale to the short skeleton, and I patted her head affectionately once I closed in on the table.

“Did you pay the bill already, Leelee? We need to head off. Doggo is wanting me to come back to talk.

“Ooooooooo,” The squeal she uttered as she wiggled her eyebrows up and down suggestively made me want to throttle her for a moment; but instead I broke out into a blush yet again. Before I could tell her to shut her gob up she giggled and stated, “Nah, Sans was kind enough to stick it on his tab, so he said not to worry about it.”

While she turned to address Sans and get ready to leave; I strode up to Grillby’s counter. The burning monster fixed his eyes on me and a small smile played onto his lips.

“Any trouble lately?”

“Not since MM started watching over the place,” Someone at the bar was laughing entirely too loudly, most likely a regular that was drunk, and I watched him set down the glass he had been cleaning tenderly onto the counter as he leaned over to where I stood. The heat off of his body was boiling me but I endured it so he could whisper, “Tell Marco I appreciate it. I am sending my payment today with Doggo.”

“Gotcha,” I heard Veralee hollering for me and I turned to join her, “See you in a bit Grillby.”


	3. Lessons In Partnership

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dialogue heavy and has quite amount of fluff in it.

**Chapter Three-**

 

The walk home had been uneventful and I learned that Sans had indeed apologized for any harsh feelings he created while I had stepped outside to regain my composure. Veralee insisted trying to talk about Doggo the entire time, much to my dismay, but I knew her well enough to know how to distract her properly. Keeping her busy with asking about any other clients on the list for today had her busy right up until we opened the door; and I moved to hide myself in the bathroom for a few moments alone as it was the only place in the house you could get a moments peace.

How did I feel about the entire situation? It had been a full year since the incident, the entire situation was something I didn’t want to think about, but I didn’t have that luxury since he wanted to bring it up.

The whole thing had got started at a holiday party at Marco’s house. All of his employees had been invited. Doggo and I had both went, admittedly I had gotten drunker than I normally would, and the night was going great for a time. We had all sat around telling stories about different jobs or handing out bragging rights for the year; everyone was dealing out cards for a card game but Doggo had different plans. He showed me the exit to the balcony and the two of us stood alone together talking. The subject of feelings had come up as he explained how close he felt to me and actually said he cared for me. In my sloppy stupor I took a chance, one I should not have taken, and reached over to kiss him.

It would have been fine if he hadn’t pushed me away wearing the most terrified expression I had ever seen. He apparently did not share the same feelings I had. I took off so fast home; we didn’t have a chance to talk about it and I actively avoided him ever since. Was it a cowardly thing to do? Yes. Did I want to constantly put myself around him when we both knew my feelings and I didn’t know his making the entire relationship even more embarrassing? Not really.

There was no getting out of it now. I had made a promise and I always keep my promises; so I pushed myself out of the bathroom and out of the house again. The amount of people walking on the streets had doubled since we had gotten home, I could just barely make out Doggo standing off to the side by the door as a few stray monsters walked into the bar, and I waved him over to the door to step inside.

We picked a booth away from earshot and Flo took our orders hastily; the lunch rush wasn’t allowing her much time to delegate customers. I assured her we would leave a good tip for her so she could focus on others which earned me a very happy smile from her. Even if I had never been a waiter myself, the struggle at lunch rush always looked stressful, and one less thing for the poor girl to worry about seemed like a nice thing. Bonus points for being left alone to talk too; not that I minded Flo knowing anything.

“I… I don’t know where to start…”

“So then let’s focus on the basics,” I placed my hands onto the table while I spoke slowly in thought, “I can start by admitting that I did in fact ask to not be placed on guard with you anymore.”

“Why, Sevan? We worked so well together…” I couldn’t look him in the eyes or I was sure I was going cry; which was something I didn’t do a lot of. He sounded so wounded and looked just as hurt.

“We do, I’ve never denied that, and I didn’t do it out of anger or because I don’t like you Doggo. It’s the complete opposite, in fact,” I stopped for a moment as Flo rushed over to bring us our food. The normal rare steak for me and just a basket of fries for Doggo. Reaching into my wallet instead of waiting, I paid for our meals and handed Flo her tip, as well as asking her nicely to give us some privacy to talk. She took it well enough; understanding from the look I gave her and the payment ahead of time I didn’t want to be bothered. When I was sure she was gone I continued on softly, “I have feelings for you Doggo. Strong ones at that. Whenever we were at Marco’s party, you started confessing all these sentimental feelings, and I was so wasted I acted on them; but it was the look you gave me after it man. You look like I had just had just told you blind dogs couldn’t fight. You look so disgusted with me, man…”

‘Don’t cry damn it!’ I screeched out in my mind and threw my hands in front of my face to cradle them for a moment. If I focused hard enough, I could tune out all of the background noise, and just focus on my breathing or my heartbeat to distract myself. The last thing I wanted to do was let him see me cry like a child.

“Do you regret it?” His hand pulled one of mine away from my face as I pondered on the question.

“No… I do regret how its affected our relationship, though…”

“I wasn’t disgusted with you, Sevan,” I watched him curiously as he held up one furry digit as he spoke with a smile on his face, “First off: I’m blind, dude. I feel like sometimes you forget about that and while I appreciate that you understand I am fully capable of taking care of myself; you didn’t stop to take that into account. I saw you moving closer, that much is true, but it caught me way off-guard.”

“I… Hadn’t even considered that actually…”

“And on a second note: I had a hard time understanding what had happened. I was drunk, blind, and thoroughly confused. It wasn’t until the morning after had I realized; ‘Holy shit that was him kissing me.’ And about an hour later it sunk in that I probably had upset you by not returning your feelings or validating them.”

“This is a mess,” I tried to laugh at the entire situation but it ended up coming out as the sorriest excuse for a laugh I had ever heard. We both sat in silence for a moment, taking in the information each of us had given the other, and I considered what I said next carefully before I talked again, “Why don’t we clear the air then? It will make things less weird if we just get it out in the open and we can deal with it as we see fit.”

“I agree. I’ll start.”

Doggo sat up some in the booth seat, taking his hips to lean over the booth, and I watched in interest as his hand felt my face. Once his thumb had found the corner of my mouth he pressed his lips against mine roughly and I grunted in surprise as my eyes widened. I hadn’t expected the kiss and my entire body had tensed; but I was slowly relaxing and turning my head into the kiss. The sound of him sighing contently could barely be heard, my hands grabbed each side of his face, and when we parted I found myself trying not to show how eager my body was for him to do that again.

“Holy hell…” I gasped out gruffly once I had found my voice again. I took a quick glance around the bar, several people had been watching our performance apparently, and my cheeks flushed as I dipped my ears back a tad, “Doggo… I don’t want to just kiss you.”

“Then what do you want?” His head had tilted slightly and I felt the blush on my cheeks spread to the rest of my face. ‘I want you on this damn table…’ I grunted angrily in my head, ‘No… Don’t say that. He might actually do it.’

“I… I want to start over,” That look he was giving me wasn’t helping anything. I had confused him from the way his head was tilted. It was so cute, why was he being so cute, damn it? “What I meant is… I want to start over from when I admitted my feelings. Doggo, I know I’m not perfect, but you make it seem like it doesn’t matter than I’m not perfect. The way I feel when I’m with you doing anything… I feel like I am at home. I don’t have to worry about being enough; because I always am enough when you’re around.”

“My turn,” He sat back down onto the seat and chewed on a few fries before continuing, “When I first met you and was assigned to work with you; I had Marco slip me some information about you that he knew of which you know as much as I do: that’s something he doesn’t do. I explained because I was blind and couldn’t see you I wanted to at least have something to talk about when we worked together.

He told me what you looked like and how you acted some. I kept telling myself that I was prepared for when we first met because to be honest I was pretty nervous. You remember what the first thing you did when we met?”

“I stuck out my hand to shake yours?” I tried to hide how confused I was and how shocked I was that Marco had actually told him about me or that he was even scared to meet me. A small smile crept onto his features as he nodded his head to confirm I was indeed right; but he also tapped on the table some.

“Yes and no. You did stick out your hand for me to shake, which I had to struggle to find, but what I meant was after the handshake. We introduced ourselves and I explained I couldn’t see. That I was blind and what I could see was movement; all of those things that came with the handicap. I was referring to what you said after I told you that. I’ll never forget it: “Even if you are blind, Marco wouldn’t have put you on if he wasn’t confident in your abilities, so I trust you with my life. Just like you can trust me with yours. That’s what partners are for right?” That was the first time I had ever had anyone not give me pity or tell me I was a burden or try and do everything for me. That was the first time in my entire life I felt like I belonged.”

His hands had started shaking so I reached over to take them and his head bowed slightly downwards. I did remember what I had said to him, what I hadn’t known was how it had affected him, and I tried not to think how sad it was that no one had ever thought he could handle himself. That long ago I had fully put my trust in not only him; but also in Marco’s decisions. I was right to put my trust in them both as neither of them had ever let me down in the five years I had known them.

“I guess what I am trying to say is I feel the same way you do, Sevan. Despite the fact that I’m not the easiest person to get along with sometimes, I don’t think we’ve ever had an argument that lasted longer than five minutes without one of us making the other laugh at something, and then it’s like we had never fought in the first place afterward. We’ve fought side by side through plenty and I don’t think there is anyone else in the world I would rather be together with through it all. I care about you too.”

“Will you be my partner then?” I saw Doggo’s ears perk up joyously but he seemed reserved so I added, “On the job and off?”

“Yes!” His tail was beating against the leather seat so hard I was sure I was going to go deaf; his nose pressed against mine affectionately as we laughed together.

Once we had finished our meal, I made sure to wave Flo down for an extra five dollar tip for how good the steak was, Doggo and I both heading back out to his post outside the bar. The first order of business for us both was to call up Marco and I personally requested to be partnered with Doggo again. He didn’t even sound surprised that I wanted to be his partner again, the one thing I loved about that him was he didn’t question things too much, but I knew later on I would owe him an explanation. He earned that much I figured.

The walk home alone was much more peaceful; a pretty sizable weight lifted off my shoulders. I slipped into the house and happened to catch Veralee at a moment when she was napping, almost feeling guilty I wouldn’t have to spill the beans just yet, as I treaded into my room to shut the door. The bed was looking mighty comfortable right about now and I decided I had earned at the very shortest an hour nap. I didn’t even take off my sneakers, laying nose-first into my soft pillows, and shut my eyes to drift into sleep.


	4. All Is Fair In Love And War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Language warning and violence in this chapter.

**Chapter Four-**

 

Most normal people would wake up to a quiet house and that be normal, but for my housemates, that was the first and biggest sign that something was very much not normal. I didn’t have a peppy orange blur forcing me to wake up and it was entirely too dark outside. Had I slept all day? The first thing I checked was my necklace which was still there, next my brass knuckles that I hadn’t even bothered to take off, and thankfully they were still there.

The hallway was pitch black but my eyes adjusted to it; as I swiveled my head cautiously to look into the living room and check Veralee’s door. Why were all the lights off? No one in the house ever kept absolutely all the lights off. There was a sense of unease as I inched out of the room to check on Veralee. The door opened softly, there had been a sign of a struggle that much I was sure of, because she never kept her room this messy. A quick glance at the door confirmed that she had indeed not went down without a fight from the claw marks deeply embedded into the wood. I struggled to keep my anger reeled back, the fact of the matter was I needed to keep a calm head, but in a fit of rage I slammed my fist through the drywall with a guttural roar.

I barely heard the swishing of wind to dodge the projectile in time. Thankfully, my honed reflexes kicked in, and I rolled forward in a flash as I crashed into the owner of the projectile. My rage was boiling over as I reeled back to slam my fist into their face; only to be rewarded by slamming my fist into the carpet and then through it.

“WHOA! Easy there, Sev! Fuckin’ hells man, ya bloody damn teddy bear, ya almost took of my head ya fuck!”

“Klepto?” I forced my hand out of the concrete with a growl in pain, seeing finally who the attacker was, and I roared out in anger, “Where the hell have you been?! Someone’s been here and they’ve got Vera!”

The raccoon monster shifted to look away for a moment and I resisted the urge to kick him out of frustration. His body was mainly that of your average raccoon, the only noticeable differences were his eagle wings he sported freely accessible on his back, and his feet were strong talons that had a grey tint to him like the rest of his shaggy unkempt fur. I huffed out angrily and pushed passed him into the living room; trying to think without having to stare at him.

“I’m sorry mate,” I grunted a response and turned to glance at him as he pulled up his bandana over his snout which muffled his speech when he continued, “I was ‘bout ten yalms up when I saw the struggle. I tailed the bastards back to their base o’ operations and was comin’ back to see if either of ya were home.”

“You know where they took her?” His nod was all I needed as I stomped back into my room to grab my phone. I dialed and waited for Durza to answer; which I knew he would since we had an unspoken rule to never call when he was on a contract unless there was an emergency. It rang twice and then his hushed voice answer rather abruptly.

“What has happened?”

“Someone’s taken Veralee while I was asleep. Klepto caught sight of them and tailed them. We need you here now; I don’t have a lot of time,” There was a slight pause in conversation in which I heard someone gurgle – Not one to question these sounds I blocked it from memory – and I spoke again after a moment, “I need you here in five. Is that possible? I’m going to send Klepto back to make sure they don’t go anywhere.”

“That’s reasonable. I will be there in four.”

The call was ended, taking a moment to poke my head around the corner, and stepped into Klepto’s room gingerly. He was pulling out his special deck of cards I noticed, the ones he only used for special tougher jobs, and I watched him stuff that and a shiny black gun (Humans and their uselessness came in handy for one thing: Their weaponry was effective against them more so than monsters) into their respective hilt.

“I need you to go back and make sure—“

“I’m already on it boss,” He winked at me with a mischievously smile and opened up his window as he perched on it. Once he had gotten a pair of his avian goggles on he turned back to me, “I’ll ring ya if these thugs take her anywhere an’ give ya coordinates to follow.”

The push out of the window was a rough one I knew; but he took flight so fast I don’t think it mattered. When I was sure he had gotten up into the sky without any problem the next thing on my list was calling Marco. He had been my boss and longtime friend, the monster looked like something out of humans horror films called a Werewolf, and I knew he would be fully behind helping get Veralee back with as close as we all were.

“Marco?”

“Mmm,” I could hear the deep growl in his tired answer and winced at waking him, “This Sevan? Don’t you know what time it is?”

“Veralee’s missing.”

“WHAT?!” I heard a loud roar and the sound of muffled fabric being pushed around as well as a yelp from his companion he apparently had startled. If I hadn’t been so worked up I might have thought that was hilarious.

“I have Klepto on it. He happened to see them taking her off and so he knows where they are. I need some man power.”

“You have access to it all. Klepto needs to call me with the information and I’ll have something over to you in about ten minutes,” I heard a brief pause and the sound of something crashing made me jump, “I’ll tear their god damn intestines out…”

That was all I heard before the phone call ended abruptly and I was bathed in darkness. I pushed into my room to grab my emergency bag; just as the ding of the door being closed sounded off in the stillness. Durza was cleaning off his claws in the sink once I paced into the kitchen, shrugging off his jacket that had blood splattered over it, and he looked visibly strained while he worked.

“You didn’t drive all the way home like that… did you?”

“Yes,” His voice came out in a wheeze as he picked up the pace, “I had to use my talent the entire way. I have replenished my magic, the supply I carry in case of emergencies was more than enough, but it’s physically wore me down. I will be of use still.”

I watched him tear off into his room during which I picked up the stained article of clothing with a nearby remote to discard into the dirty clothing basket in the hall; as I sat it down he closed his door and hitched up a long black duffle bag. A ding came from my phone signaling a text with the current whereabouts of Veralee which I forwarded to Marco after Durza glimpsed at it. We both stepped out of the house together and onto Durza’s racing motorcycle. The road sped underneath us, winding whipping through my thick fur as we drove closer, but the only thing running through my mind was revenge. I would hurt every single one of these pricks just as much as they had hurt me; I promised myself that.

Durza stopped a block away from the building in an alley way. It looked like an old run-down warehouse; most likely used as storage or factory work at some point. When I had turned back around I saw Durza throw his hand out in front of me and tense, a noise sounding from the left of the alley way, both of us giving a collective sigh of relief as Marco shambled into the darkness with us. He had Doggo, Saber, Eli, and Conker with him and I could see from the angry expression Marco didn’t plan on sparing a single person tonight.

“What’re we waiting on?” Conker, an impatient, tall, and lanky neon blue chameleon monster stomped over to Durza and me both. Eli, a small possum monster with an extended gripping tail, started to climb up the wall to the alley to scale it.

“Oi,” Klepto swooped downwards to tuck in his wings and pulled out his cellphone as he showed us some pictures that he managed to get, “From the broken windows ya can see where they’re keepin’ Vera. We’ve gotta pretty expanded army at our disposal, so I say we use it well, and spread out best o’ possible.”

“You’re right. Saber and Klepto; you two need to fly together and you’ll be picking up Vera. Wait until we’ve got them plenty distracted. Conker and Eli since you three are most known for stealth I am going to need you three to take out anyone guarding doors. Durza; I’ll need you to man the escape vehicle for us all if Marco doesn’t mind you driving his car. That leaves myself, Marco, and Doggo,” I slammed my hand through the bricks with a sinister grin, “The muscle. Our goal is to get Vera and bust some heads in. If you have a chance to take a hostage: do it. Let’s do this shit.”

As we all scattered around the warehouse my thoughts centered on my promise to keep Veralee safe; at any cost even if it meant my life. I had made my peace with that promise long ago, today was no different, just another day that I planned on fulfilling that promise.

 

- ** _Veralee’s P.O.V._** -

 

There was white hot blinding pain everywhere once I had woken up fully. I could faintly hear whispering of some kind, moving my arms or legs were impossible for whatever reason, and there were figures moving in the darkness. My throat was dry as I attempted to swallow; something moving closer to me from the haze in my eyes.

“It’s awake.” The voice was cold and harsh on my ears. I whimpered lightly in pain at the figure; hoping blindly it would show me mercy. How long had I been tied up here? Where was I? The cold sounding figure was joined by another taller one.

“We need to be moving it soon.”

“To a different base?” I felt my chest tighten and my tail thumped against something in my fit of anxiety. The cold voiced figure leaned closer to me and I finally made out his appearance. He was a human. Humans were holding me captive; the revelation causing me to cry out in fear. A callused hand slammed across my face with a force that knocked the air out of my lungs and evoked a painful dizziness. Once my eyes could focus again, the man’s cold brown eyes glaring at me in disgust, as he sneered at me in an almost lunatic fashion, “Shut up. I won’t hesitate to knock you out again.”

The two figures walked away back into the darkness to talk alone. A different human man strode up to my side along with a metallic table following him close behind. The human reached onto the table to pick up a long thin knife; turning it over several times in his hand as if in thought as I struggled fruitlessly. The grin on his face turned my blood cold and I screamed out in terror as icy metal parted my fur on my exposed chest in an angry sort of pain. There hadn’t even been enough time for me to register he was slicing again; my lungs completely emptying out in a shudder. After quite a few struggling breaths, I began to realize he wasn’t slicing mindlessly, this was intentional and exact. I was getting something carved into my chest and with the last few strokes of his finished work; I began to sob roughly at the thought.

There were muffled sounds of gun shots that instantly made me freeze as well as the man. I could faintly make out someone grab him from the dark and I was left alone for a few choice moments; barely registering blood seeping from the wounds that had been created. The sound of wings beating from behind me perked my ears up, a well-known sound of claws tapping on the concrete floor sent hope shivering through me, and a quick look out of the corner of my eyes caused me to begin to cry tears of joy at the sight of Klepto.

“Oi lass,” The sorrow in his voice broke me further into tears and I hadn’t had enough time to prepare for someone cutting the bindings from my arms as I tumbled forward into his arms, “I’ve gotcha V. Let’s get outta here.”

“H-H-Humans…” I rushed out the broken sentence through my raspy throat and he nodded sadly to me. I allowed myself to be carried out into the cold night air onto his back as I passed out from the pain.

 

- ** _Sevan’s P.O.V._** -

 

Once we had gotten into the warehouse and passed the guards; it was fairly easy for us to use the manpower we had to push our way forward. Marco burst through the door, knocking out three more guards, and through the distraction Doggo and I both pushed further into it. My thoughts immediately went to Vera as I slammed my fist into the ground right as several humans began to clamor around us. A wave of earth rippled under the ground and spiked up; impaling the closest while knocking over some of the farther ones.

Marco charged in next, his mouth caught onto a few, the sickening sound of bones snapping and cries of pain echoed. We both watched in amusement as a few tried to corner up and Doggo sent out a wave of blue daggers. The humans were shredded as they moved to dodge the fast projectiles and failed miserably. While I ran passed the chaos to the room Veralee was being held in, I heard the sound of a gun going off, and felt a force push into my shoulder before the building pain pulsed through my body. I turned quickly only to see Eli’s tail wrap around the offending human and squeeze tightly around them until they went slack after several popping noises and screams.

The door flung open roughly once I entered it, a human holding a knife standing in front of Vera, and with a growl I pulled him into the dark away from her. He pushed away as I reared back to hit him and I roared out as his knife connected with my shoulder. I waited until he swung again for my leg to swing up expertly; kicking away his weapon. Once he was disarmed I fell on him with fury in my eyes, my fist connecting with several parts of his body, but I only got a few hits in before someone stronger than I was pulling me off him. My maw was opened growling and howling out; spit flying out of my mouth in a fit of pure rage. He was being lifted and taken somewhere, as I struggled against my captor, Doggo’s face appearing through the haze of red anger.

“HE HURT HER! I NEED TO DO THIS! DON’T STOP ME! I NEED TO DO THIS!” Tears had formed and trickled down my face as I screamed out to Doggo for sympathy. His face saddened and his hand felt for my face. I was let go, falling into Doggo’s form limply, and cried onto his shoulder roughly. We returned to the car together and I numbly sat against his shoulder the entire ride.


End file.
